I think we are mixing things up too much. Agile Coach, Change Agent?

The zebra cannot shed its stripes. — “Zebra Line” by ROSS HONG KONG is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Maybe this won’t please some people and that’s not my intention on this post at all but, I think we are mixing things up too much. Agile Coach, Change Agent? I hope consultants don’t get mad at me, I might be closing some doors to me right now, but if you read between the lines, there’s room for all :-)

“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

That is how the Agile Manifesto starts.

If you work in IT, and evangelize the Agile manifesto: Agile Coach = Agile Software Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development

If you work helping organizations to work differently: Change Agent = Change Management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_management

I don’t know if you can be both, maybe yes, and perhaps I’m already both, but definitively I think somehow they are different. Perhaps we should call a spade a spade?

I can understand that the good results that have been heard from agility in the world of technology have made many people think that it is the cure for all, but I think that has led to an attempt to aggressively market agility as “one-size-fits-all” in the shape of “frameworks or processes” (disguised), and it sounds nice to add the word Agile to everything, it sounds cool, when in reality that is not agility.

It is not about “IT geeks” hijacking or keeping something hidden to others, it kind of “grinds my gears”, I think is wrong and does not really reflects the job Agile Coaches do (coach for agile software development). I think that in my role there is “some of Coach”, although I think the most important part of that “Coach side” is knowing what questions I need to ask, the right ones (and that comes from experience in the field), my conversations are primarily focused on questions, I make tons of them and I do not prescribe at all things like Scrum, Kanban, OKR’s or any other framework/technique (flavor of the month) as the unique cure for all the pains, in any case, I could ask if they tried one of those, or if they are willing to try different, and if still doesn’t work, I could try to help find their own way until we make it work, and then evolve it and continuously improved.

To try all the above and beyond you don’t need to have a certificate, you just have to be curious, and eager to be better, and that my friends, is Agility.

I think it is not right for people to obtain certificates without even knowing what’s the problem they have, when it is very likely that for example, none of those terms above mentioned can solved those problems, (assuming that you really have a problem to solve) I kind of feel bad with the training spirit that’s out there because you can see how training rises whenever we have an economic crisis, we tend to think that training is our savior, just get trained, it doesn’t matter on what, rather than thinking why.

I don’t have any certificate, and it is not on my horizon to get one, yet, and I want to state that I’m not saying you should not have the ones you think you need, but I think that if I get a “superhero” certificate it will not make me one, and surely not in two or three days, but hey, that’s not just me saying this, I think is common sense, so choose wisely.

I believe that for example, Change Agents can evangelize a LEAN mentality in organizations (not sure if they do), I don’t usually hear about it, I just hear “Scrum this, Scrum that”, and I think less prescription of processes and tools is more valuable, helping organizations first on how to avoid generating waste, remove all that’s not essential, it’s not about adding, it’s about removing or reducing, I think.

The manifesto is very explicit on this and puts people over processes and tools, and no prescription at all, but some try to sell you a process or a tool?

That’s why perhaps I cannot understand how a group of people in a hotel or a store can be forced to “do scrum” rather than understanding their problems, empowering them to find solutions to their known problems, and providing support throughout the journey.

There is something that I realized during my journey from dark hair to grayer, and that is that to learn I must hear those who think differently than me and those who think the same, but above all, those who think differently 🤔

I’m sharing a link to the Manifesto for those of you who have not read it or feel curious: https://agilemanifesto.org/iso/en/principles.html

The healthy debate is now open, but don’t listen to me, get out there, read about it and listen to people who knows more than me :-)

Thank you for taking the time to read it.

Francisco Cobos

🐢 “Poc a Poc” (Little by Little)